JOHANNESBURG: Stuart Broad’s lethal spell wins the Test of four-match series single-handedly to help England win a Test series in South Africam soil.
South Africa were routed for 83 in 33.1 overs, leaving England needing only 74 for a victory, a task they undertook calmly, losing three wickets with the match well won. The final Test in Centurion next week will come amid considerable South African soul searching.
Broad’s sequence of 5 for 1 in 36 balls destroyed South Africa’s top order in the first hour after lunch as 23 for 0 became 35 for 5. Remarkably, it was the seventh time in his Test career that he has taken five or more wickets in a spell. When he sees an opportunity he does not demur; when he runs hot the opposition are scalded.
He finished with 6 for 17 in 12.1 overs, not to be denied the final wicket when Faf du Plessis swung the ball onto his pad and, eyes lighting up, a sprint and dive claimed a one-handed catch in the middle of the pitch.
South Africa had suffered disturbing collapses in India, but this disintegration in front of their own supporters, and in the Bullring, too, where they have so often been at their most ferocious, will cause the greatest reverberations of all. Expectations that AB de Villiers’ elevation to the captaincy would be South Africa’s route to salvation have proven overly optimistic. Broad extinguished their guiding light for a fifth-ball duck and the Test turned in a trice.
This was South Africa’s lowest total in a home Test since readmission and second lowest of all in that period, beaten only by their 79 against India on a turning surface in Nagpur in November. They have now failed to beat England in their last three home series, losing two of them.
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